Our Team

Samantha Lobis has supported the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of maternal and newborn health programs globally since 2002. Her work at AMDD began during AMDD's first phase improving EmONC services across 18 countries, and continued with supporting national and sub-national EmONC assessments in more than seven countries. More recently, Samantha supported AMDD’s Re-Visioning EmONC project (2021-2025)—which updated the EmONC Framework used for assessing, planning and monitoring EmONC services—serving both as a member of AMDD’s core team and leading country studies in Senegal, Malawi, and Bangladesh.

In addition to providing technical assistance to various AMDD-related initiatives, Samantha has worked or consulted for Bloomberg Philanthropies, Vital Strategies, Thamini Uhai, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH), Cultural Practice, the International Rescue Committee, and the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights (now Human Rights First). Key projects and initiatives that she has supported in these roles include Thamini Uhai’s 13-year program which expanded women’s access to high-quality EmONC and birth companion services in Kigoma, Tanzania, and the NYC DOHMH’s Healthy Start and By My Side Birth Support Program that supports expectant and new parents living in Brooklyn, NY. Samantha’s work has also focused on applying human rights-based approaches to service improvements, developing strategies to integrate gender transformative approaches into programming and grantmaking, and using information communication technology for social accountability.

Samantha served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Guinea (Conakry) and received an MPH from the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and a BA in cultural anthropology and sociology from Union College. She is based in New York City, USA.

Emily Keyes is a researcher and public health specialist focused on quality of intrapartum care, maternal and newborn health, emergency referral systems, and health system strengthening. Since 2008, Emily has worked with AMDD and national and regional ministries of health, UN partners and local organizations to support efforts to improve the availability, access and quality of obstetric and newborn services in Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guyana, Mozambique, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, and Zambia. She has expertise in the areas of quantitative analyses; spatial analyses; data collection and management; data for decision-making; monitoring, evaluation and learning; and applying rapid learning cycles for program improvement.

For more than 18 years, Emily has also provided technical assistance to maternal, newborn and child health (MNCH) programs and to MNCH evaluation and research activities as a Technical Advisor with FHI 360. She has acted as MNCH Technical Partner to USG-funded bilateral programs in Mozambique and Uganda, and as MNCH Technical Lead for global USG-funded programs. In these roles, Emily has led evaluations of the impact of an mHealth intervention to improve intrapartum care in Tanzania and Mozambique, and the impact of solar electrification on the quality of health services in Zambia, as well as geographic analyses to improve access to quality intrapartum services in Mozambique, Ethiopia, and Ghana.

She received her MPH in health policy and administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Gillings School of Global Public Health, and also holds a BS in civil engineering from Villanova University. She is based in Vermont, USA.

Dr. Isabelle Moreira is an obstetrician-gynecologist and public health practitioner with more than 25 years of experience in sexual and reproductive health. She has been involved with AMDD in EmONC planning and monitoring and a number of EmONC needs assessments in the Africa Region and Haiti. She contributed to the previous (2009) and most recent (2021-2025) global EmONC revisioning processes, both as a member of AMDD’s core team and as with country studies in Senegal, Malawi, and Bangladesh.

Dr. Moreira has expertise in program/project management and evaluation in maternal health and family planning in the Africa Region (Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, Gambia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Benin, Togo, Madagascar, Chad, Congo, Burundi, Cape Verde, Equatorial Guinea), as well as in adolescent sexual and reproductive health, reproductive health commodity security, and HIV/Aids work at national and regional level.

She holds an MD OB-GYN from Cheikh Anta Diop University of Dakar, and an MPH from the University of Montréal. She is based in Senegal.

Dr. Edwin Libamba is a medical doctor and public health expert with over 15 years of experience in sexual and reproductive health, maternal and newborn health, HIV and TB program areas. He has led and coordinated EmONC needs assessments in a number of countries in the African Region including Malawi, Ghana, The Gambia, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Sudan and Sierra Leone.

He has extensive experience working with policy managers at national level as well as health managers, health service providers and communities at district level, and previously worked as a district health officer and as the Director of the HIV Department at national level in Malawi. He has experience and expertise in reviewing and evaluating reproductive health as well as HIV programs at national and district levels.

Dr. Libamba holds an MB BS, MPH, and BSc in medical sciences. He is based in Malawi.

Wasihun Andualem Gobezie has over 25 years of experience in the field of reproductive, maternal, newborn, child, and adolescent health, working in diverse settings and at different levels of expertise. Since 2008, he has played a critical role in the execution of several EmONC national assessments in a variety of African countries. Mr. Wasihun has published a number of articles based on results from these EmONC assessments, and has presented his analyses in both national and international fora.

He has also served in senior positions at different international NGOs, leading and implementing high quality monitoring and evaluation and knowledge management projects with diverse stakeholders. He is an expert in quantitative and qualitative research methods, program evaluation, database management, and geo-mapping, and has provided support to countries in study design, sampling techniques, developing study tools, statistical analysis (including complex regression model fitting), report writing, and overall research management. He holds an MPH degree as well as a BS degree in biostatistics. Currently, he is doing his PhD in healthcare administration. He is based in Ethiopia.

Helen de Pinho is an Associate Dean of Educational Programs, Assistant Professor in the Heilbrunn Department of Population and Family Health, and former Associate Director of the AMDD Program in the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University. Her research work at AMDD centered on strengthening human resources, with a particular focus on expanding access to health care providers to reduce maternal mortality. She has led research in several sub-Saharan Africa countries examining the use of associate clinicians and mid-level providers to expand access to emergency obstetric care.

Helen has a deep interest in systems thinking and its application to complex public health problems. She spearheaded an innovative approach to teaching systems thinking in Columbia’s MPH curriculum, developed systems thinking training modules for WHO, and created in person and online systems thinking training programs for senior government officials and their HHRSA, CDC and USAID counterparts. She has also applied systems thinking tools to research resilience in post-conflict and conflict settings, and to explore program implementation issues.

Before joining Columbia University, Helen was a policy advisor to the United Nations on the UN Millennium Project and together with Lynn Freedman was one of the authors of the task force final report: Who’s got the power? Transforming health systems for women and children”. In South Africa, as faculty at the University of Cape Town (UCT), she directed the senior leadership development program. She has worked as a health service manager and physician in rural and urban South Africa.

Helen trained as a physician (MBBCh), specialized in public health (FCCH), and holds an MBA from UCT. She is based in New York City, USA.